Warfarin is what they give people who need to keep their veins working too
To keep the blood thin
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They got the money better use it then
I read the Australian news on this case. The parents felt that the quality of medical care in Taiwan is very low compared to Australia and they were getting frustrated with the language barrier.
The manâs dad is also a GP and was obviously not happy with the Taiwan GPâs diagnosis of âits an infectionâ and tried to figure it out by himself
He had adverse reactions to the treatment provided to him by Taiwan hospitals (anaphylaxis).
Although idk why they need a gofundme, any decent travel insurance policy would pay for the medical transfer if it was actually necessary
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The medical services in Taiwan donât currently have the right treatments or drugs to stabilize his condition, so itâs imperative we get him home now to prevent any further damage to his organs and to give him the best chance of recovery.
I find it quite hard to believe that NTUH (or other major hospitals here) arenât able to properly deal with people whoâve ingested rat poison.
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âterminal half lifeâ?
WTF is that supposed to mean?
Itâs a valid term, but theyâve used it incorrectly in the article because the writer presumably didnât know what they were writing about. For a general audience, they should just have omitted that bit - the âlong-lastingâ earlier in the sentence is sufficient.
Terminal plasma half-life is the time required to divide the plasma concentration by two after reaching pseudo-equilibrium, and not the time required to eliminate half the administered dose.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2885.2004.00600.x
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He was (at least eventually) at TMU Hospital, also a major hospital.
Having gone through a fairly scary health issue some years ago, I can vouch that the first doctor(s) you meet may or may not diagnose the problem correctly. In my case, thankfully I was eventually able to find a doctor who understood immediately what was happening to me. But the delays and misdiagnosis encountered in this case seems to have really frustrated the studentâs family . . . I guess âDid you eat rat poison?â is not the first question doctors think of asking. 
Guy
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I actually wrote âTMUHâ first but thought Iâd misread it and it had been NTUH, and I couldnât be bothered going back to check.
Doesnât really affect the point I wanted to make though - whichever major hospital he was at, I find it hard to believe they wouldnât be able to treat it and the only option was flying him back to Australia.
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I agree. In my experience, the major hospitals can and do figure it outâthere are enough smart specialists around to do so. Itâs when you start off at other places, including clinics, that your results may vary . . .
In any case, I hope this guy can recover soon. What he went through sounds awful.
Guy
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Oh yeah, I donât bother with clinics myself. If he did go to one of those first, I wouldnât be surprised if they told him to drink more hot water, get some rest, and avoid spicy foods (and sent him away with the obligatory bag of M&Ms, of course).
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Iâll add my own experience here.
My daughter broke her leg when she was four. We took her to hospital and the doc examined her, moved her leg in every direction while she screamed. Then she had an X-ray. We were told it wasnât broken and that she should rest a little and she would probably be alright the next day. If not, then come back on Monday. For two days, she hobbled around on a broken leg with us thinking she was being dramatic. When we went back on the Monday and saw a different doctor, he pointed out on the X-ray taken at the time that her leg was snapped from one side to the other. It would have been a compound fracture if she were an adult. When we complained about the original doctor not seeing that, he said the computer screens in ER arenât as clear. Wtf!
The second one was when my second kid was born prematurely. We went to the hospital because my wife felt like she was going into labour. The doctor came out with her hair sticking up because she had been napping. They did some tests and quickly decided that she wasnât going into labour. They wanted to send her home but my MIL was worried so begged the doc to keep her in longer. The doc said there was no need and sent her home. 12 hours later, we were being told by a different doctor that my son was coming. He spent the next two weeks in ICU. The second doctor asked us why we didnât come earlier because even just a few extra days in the womb makes a difference.
Thankfully, I have two healthy kids now, but I can definitely see how his parents might not be happy with his initial treatment.
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@BigDave Thatâs frustrating for a parent to see their children go through this.
To add my own experience: In 2015 I was involved in a scooter accident (old guy pulled out in front of me without looking). Ambulance took me to the hospital, where I complained of leg pain and pain in my rib area. ER asked me questions, x-rayed my leg and found my ankle was broken. They put on a temporary cast, told me to come back on Monday for the permanent cast (it was Friday night), but they didnât address the rib pain. I figured doctors know best and that I was just bruised up and the pain would ease up.
When I returned to the hospital on Monday for the permanent cast I told the doctor that I could barely sleep because of the rib pain. I also couldnât use crutches because of the pain. They eventually decided to do a chest x-ray and found two cracked ribs.
While I do appreciate the NHI here, my experience is that some doctors donât listen to the patient. I donât know if itâs an ego/respect-the-highly-educated thing or what.
Something similar happened in January when I got Covid. I went to the hospital and during their assessment I told them that I worried about pneumonia because Iâd had two cases previously, the first almost killing me. But they just prescribed Covid medication and sent me on my way. At the follow up I saw a different doctor, told him my concerns, but this doctor took me seriously and immediately ordered a chest x-ray (even commenting that he didnât understand why the other doctor didnât do this). Sure enough, my concerns were correct and I had pneumonia, which the doctor ordered specific medication for and monitored me well.
Both good and bad doctors hereâlikely everywhereâbut I can understand the Australian family being concerned what with being so far away.
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Language shouldnât be a problem. Just about any doctors at major hospitals will speak enough English to know whatâs wrong.
However they are probably not as well paid as say doctors in the states, so that might affect their willingness to go the extra mile.
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Could be a combination of poor listening skill and power plays. In communication I notice that many locals infer and extrapolate more than directly observe (younger doctors tends to be more hands-off). Doctors are also one of the exalted professions, are authority figures: many patients defer, and never contradict their doctor. This could be a problem with some doctors.
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Exactly
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Thanks. And apologies. I should just have looked it up.
Now I just have to find out WTF âpseudo-equilibriumâ means
.
I may be some time.
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They can be terrible too. It matters which hospital you go to initially, their specialties, and which department you see first. My close friend died of CSF cancer here after a series of misdiagnosis. In the end, he never really got proper treatment for the actual cancer because of all the complications he was dealing with by the time they properly diagnosed it. It left me with very little trust in the system here for complicated medical issues. For straight forward issues, itâs great of course⌠most of the time.
This poor guyâs case doesnât surprise me.
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TLDR version: The pros misdiagnosed and were letting me die, and DIY diagnosis and the Internyet saved my life.
Of course NOW the Internyet would probably piss about with ChatGP generated robotic rubbish and Iâd still die, only even more extremely irritated.
The family updated the gofundme page. They deleted the lines that mentioned he âmay have picked up some food at local street marketâ and âThe medical services in Taiwan donât currently have the right treatmetns or drugsâ, both of which turned out to be untrue.
They also initially stated that
but now the funds will also go towards rehab in Australia 
EDIT: The Medical Rescue team that they initially claimed would donate the surplus funds to is a private company that provides medical evacuation services and is the company they are using to have him flown to Australia.
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It would be wise to delete the part about street food as you can pick up criminal and civil charge for this. After all this will hurt some peopleâs business.